Parents of boy who died from ‘brain-eating amoeba’ say they are ‘terrified it will happen to someone else’

Published

4 months ago

July 30, 2025

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The parents of a 12-year-old boy who died from due to a “brain-eating amoeba” say they are “terrified it will happen to someone else”.

Jaysen Carr died two weeks after swimming in one of South Carolina’s most popular lakes, when the single-celled organism naegleria fowleri entered his body through his nose.

His parents say they had no idea the organism – also known as the brain-eating amoeba – existed in Lake Murray, around 15 miles (24km) west of Columbia.

“I can’t believe we don’t have our son. The result of him being a child was losing his life. That does not sit well. And I am terrified it will happen to someone else,” Clarence Carr told The Associated Press (AP).

“My son lost his life swimming. We assumed it was safe,” he added.

Friends invited Jaysen and his family to the lake on the 4 July holiday weekend, where he spent hours swimming, fishing and riding on an inner tube that was being pulled by a boat.

A few days later, Jaysen’s suffered headaches which got worse and then became nauseous, disoriented and lethargic.

The amoeba was in his brain, already causing an infection and destroying brain tissue. It entered his nose, as he played in the water, and travelled along his olfactory nerve into his brain.

The amoeba caused an infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis.

Fewer than 10 people a year get it in the US, and more than 95% of them die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A two-year-old boy died from the same infection in Nevada, after visiting a natural hot spring in July 2023, while in the same month, a swimmer from Georgia also died.

Among other incidents, one in March 2023 involved a man from Florida who died after rinsing his nose with tap water, and in August 2022, a child died after swimming in the Elkhorn River in eastern Nebraska.

The amoeba is found in warm water. It cannot move from one person to another.

A GoFundMe page has raised $53,310 (£39,924) to help Jaysen’s family pay for unexpected expenses.

What is the ‘brain-eating amoeba’?

Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled organism which thrives in warm water (over 25C), including lakes and rivers in countries with hot, sometimes dry summers, like the US, Pakistan, and Australia.

The amoeba enters the brain through the olfactory nerve in the nose. Once inside, it causes an infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis.

Symptoms start as a headache and nausea, and by the time the pain becomes severe, it is almost always too late to save the infected person.

Most deaths happen within five days of getting sick, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of the 167 cases reported in the US between 1962 and 2024, only four people have survived.

Boys seem more susceptible, perhaps because they are more likely to jump and dive into the water.

The only way to be completely safe is to not swim in lakes or rivers and, if you do, keep your head above water.

The amoeba is fairly common but researchers are still trying to understand why some people appear more susceptible to the deadly infection than others.

Mr Carr has questioned whether anyone on the lake had any clue about the danger in that water.

“There are entire families out there on pontoon boats, jumping off, just like our kids were having the time of their lives,” he said.

“It very well could be their last moments, and they are unaware of it.”

World

COP30: Countries reach draft deal to help speed up climate action

Published

13 hours ago

November 22, 2025

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COP30: Countries reach draft deal to help speed up climate action

Countries attending COP30, the biggest climate meeting of the year, have agreed steps to help speed up climate action, according to a draft deal.

The meeting of leaders in the Brazilian city of Belem also saw them agree to reviewing related trade barriers and triple the money given to developing countries to help them withstand extreme weather events, according to the draft.

However, the summit’s president Correa do Lago said “roadmaps” on fossil fuels and forests would be published as there was no consensus on these issues.

The annual United Nations conference brings together world leaders, scientists, campaigners, and negotiators from across the globe, who agree on collective next steps for tackling climate change.

The two-week conference in the Amazon city of Belem was due to end at 6pm local time (9pm UK time) on Friday, but it dragged into overtime.

The standoff was between the EU, which pressed for language on transitioning away from fossil fuels, and the Arab Group of nations, including major oil exporter Saudi Arabia, which opposed it.

The impasse was resolved following all-night negotiations led by Brazil, negotiators said.

The European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, said on Saturday that the proposed accord was acceptable, even though the bloc would have liked more.

“We should support it because at least it is going in the right direction,” he said.

The Brazilian presidency scheduled a closing plenary session.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and about 80 countries, including the UK and coal-rich Colombia, had been pushing for a plan on how to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

This is a pledge all countries agreed to two years ago at COP28 – then did very little about since.

But scores of countries – including major oil and gas producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia – see this push as too prescriptive or a threat to their economies.

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World

Israel launches strikes on Gaza in further test of fragile ceasefire

Published

13 hours ago

November 22, 2025

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Israel launches strikes on Gaza in further test of fragile ceasefire

Israel says it has begun striking Hamas targets in Gaza, reportedly killing at least nine people, after what it called a “blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.

Local health authorities in Gaza said there had been three separate airstrikes, one hit a car in the densely populated Rimal neighbourhood, killing five people and wounding several others.

Shortly after the attack on the car, the Israeli air force hit two more targets in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

They said at least four people died when two houses were struck in Deir Al-Balah city and Nuseirat camp.

The Israeli military said there had been a “blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.

It claimed a gunman had crossed into Israeli-held territory after exploiting “the humanitarian road in the area through which humanitarian aid enters southern Gaza”.

A Hamas official rejected the Israeli military’s allegations as baseless, calling them an “excuse to kill”, adding the Palestinian group was committed to the ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli airstrikes are a further test of a fragile ceasefire with Hamas, which has held since 10 October following the two-year Gaza war.

Israel pulled back its troops, and the flow of aid into the territory has increased. But violence has not completely halted.

Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 316 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce.

Meanwhile, Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began and it has attacked scores of militants.

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Europe scrambles for counter-proposal to US-Russian plan for Ukraine

Published

15 hours ago

November 22, 2025

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Europe scrambles for counter-proposal to US-Russian plan for Ukraine

The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.

European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.

Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.

Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.

Ukraine war latest: Kyiv to discuss ending war in talks in Switzerland

The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.

One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.

Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.

“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.

“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”

On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.

Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.

“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.

“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.

“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.

Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.

There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.

But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.